And I`m not talking about the half-hearted attempts by the space agencies involved with such projects as the international space station, but a truly concerted effort by the whole world to seek out life-sustaining planets upon which to colonize.

Earth has a finite amount of resources and the six and a half billion of us are using those up at an ever-increasing rate. Isn`t it time we all pulled together and reached for the stars?!

In the 21st century, I`d love to know what`s stopping us. Is it technology? Is it a lack of will?

Quoting: tiaka9

Clearly we should be, so: (multiple choice)(more than one answer is possible)

a) we are exploring space (secretly)b) our leaders are idiotsc) aliens told us to stay on earth until...d) we dont have the ability to go past the VanAllen Beltse) our best and brightest minds are busy creating new ways to manipulate the financial markets & get richf) NASA is our best effort

And I`m not talking about the half-hearted attempts by the space agencies involved with such projects as the international space station, but a truly concerted effort by the whole world to seek out life-sustaining planets upon which to colonize.

Earth has a finite amount of resources and the six and a half billion of us are using those up at an ever-increasing rate. Isn`t it time we all pulled together and reached for the stars?!

In the 21st century, I`d love to know what`s stopping us. Is it technology? Is it a lack of will?

Quoting: tiaka9

Your answer, was confirmed again on October 9, 2009.

Mankind was handed a message....a "Tower of Babel" incidence...........AGAIN!

The Russians charge $23 million per seat for rides into orbit, last I heard. And they're running a serious budget operation - on an absolute shoestring since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

That's it, really; we're not expanding into space because it costs a colossal fortune to do so. $23 million per seat. And if you want to stay up there, it costs more and more, to launch your food and water and air. The International Space Station is a structure the size of three London buses, constructed and maintained at a staggering cost that strains the space programmes of a dozen nations.

And it's not worth it. Should we search for another inhabitable world? _Where_? Not in this solar system. Mars might have been another home for us, but its thin atmosphere retains little heat, so it is nothing but a dead ball of ice and rock. Once we dreamed of a Venus where the bright white clouds shielded the surface from the hot sun, and beneath that canopy awaited a moist jungle world; alas, those clouds are carbon dioxide, with a dash of hot sulphuric acid, and the greenhouse effect on Venus has made the surface into the purest hell imaginable.

Among the ice moons of the gas giants? Perhaps some day, but none are anywhere near as hospitable for human life as the Antarctic, or deepest Siberia, or the interior of Greenland, or the ocean floor.

Among the stars? Maybe; telescopes are searching for planets all the time, and hundreds have been found. Gas giants mostly; they're easier to spot, but terrestrial-sized planets are expected. But to travel to the stars? Sheer fantasy. By the time our descendants travel interstellar I doubt they'll look remotely human.

The ultimate truth is that even if there was another Earthlike planet waiting for us as nearby as the Moon, we would not be able to solve Earth's problems by emigration. Earth is adding 200,000 people _every day_. We simply cannot conceivably build enough rockets just to keep up with that - never mind ferry a significant part of the nearly seven billion people on Earth to another world.

A space elevator, if ever built, might change the economics of access to space to be more favourable. But even then, even if we establish bases on other planets, there's simply nowhere else we can put billions of people.

The earth will never be overpopulated. This is someone's fear mongering. There is currently enough food to feed all those on earth. The problem is multifaceted. One is that there is corruption in high places and the food that should get to people in times of need is not given out but the food or money is used for other purposes. Do your research.

Also, disease plays a large role in keeping the earth's population down. Medicine will never "cure" disease. It hasnt get and it may not really want to...

I believe one reason why space exploration is at a standstill is because of warmongering. Countries around the globe are very focused on killing, making killing machines bigger, smaller, better, you name it; more ways to kill those on this earth. If countries were to focus their resources and energy on the future of humankind, instead of warmongering, and finding better ways to kill humans, then maybe we, as a species would explore space. But, right now, the way I see it, it will never happen.

Finding Earth-like planets might not be too far off. Actually getting to such planets is a different question entirely. It would make far more sense to get some practice building arcologies on the ocean floor, then graduate to building under the regolith on the moon and Mars. Another idea would be to shape and hollow out asteroids, give them the proper spin, and use them as orbital habitats.

The earth will never be overpopulated. This is someone's fear mongering. There is currently enough food to feed all those on earth.

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 832834

If there's enough food, human will keep on breeding until there isn't. All living things do this. We're fortunate enough that industrial agriculture has given us a colossal superabundance of food, and population hasn't yet caught up. Given time, it surely will.

For a species to be interplanetary (in their solar system) colonizers they have to have all but abolished war on their own planet and have to have working international economies and shared interests.

For a species to be interstellar colonizers they need to have only one government and be at the point in their development that they no longer make war with themselves, have already successfully expanded through their own solar system, have already tapped the mineral and other resources of their system.

NASA has gone from 'sole explorer' role to 'vanguard role' where its mission is to kick start colonies on Moon then Mars exploiting and establishing the knowledge base for resources, while leaving it to the corporations and the 'private sector' to exploit that data.

Until very recently NASA and other space agencies have been working as explorer thinking space is to expensive for anything but national interests.

However the $10 million Ansari X Prize has already produced some promissory moves in the direction of private interests taking the lead.

But before corporations will take the risk they have to know that something of value is there to exploit.

Expect a "Gold Rush" in your life time where mineral wealth, energy wealth will kick off a leap forward into space exploration and colonization and corporations finance huge budgets to turn even larger profits that will make corporations have bank accounts to match super power nations of today.

Plenty of room to "expand". The planet is not "over-populated", we are "over-concentrated" in geographic areas and in the cities within those areas. All part of the plan though. You cannot kill what you cannot control, and you cannot control what you cannot consolidate. Cities consolidate/concentrate us nicely...

I think space colonization/exploration, should be at the forefront of human endeavors. It would provide an excellent alternative to our present solution to overpopulation, ie genocide and war. what more noble goal than to ensure the survival of our biosphere, and relieve the pressure on our planet, of a pent up stagnant humanity. I also suspect that the necessity of systems in space to be increasingly self-sustaining the further out they got, would lead to concepts and technology that would utilize matter and energy more efficiently.

Maybe we should not colonize or terraform planets,putting ourselves at the whim of an alien geology, and atmosphere, but instead build Arcologies (architecturally designed ecology), eventually on the scale of a Dyson sphere.

Somebody on the same wavelength!

Quoting: tiaka9

lets talk solutions, instead of doom, I propose another thread discussing the formation of a non profit NGO dedicated to opening up space to the general populace. given todays economic distress we should strive for Private America to be the next pioneers in global space exploration. Its time we regain our technological prowess, and show the world that we can be a force for good, and beacon of hope, once again.